Victorian Bed ~ Before and After

For a how-to step by step on distressing furniture go see Kim at Savvy Southern Style. She did a piece in her foyer and it gorgeous!!  She has pictures of  the directions.  I didn't get any pics of mine.

 HERE IS THE AFTER ~ I'll start out...My mother was an antique dealer back in the day when the Victorian look was very popular. Right around the very early 1980's. Also when the rustic country look was going mainstream.   Anyway, she bought this bed and used it in her room until she passed away in 1991. 

The bed was passed down to me. This is just the FOOTBOARD!  You should have seen the headborard! It was tall and beautifully carved in the Victorian style.  It was stored for many years in an outdoor building.  All of the glue let go and all of the intricately carved pieces fell apart! Pieces were missing.  It was a  mess.   I finally had my husband donate last year.  Well... Saturday he pulls up with a load of stored furniture...and here was the  footboard!  I thought it was gone.  The glue was fine on this part, but there was a lot of missing moulding and trim. 

All of this is the reason I painted it.  Might seem crazy, but it really is in bad condition.  Some might be horrified.  But at least now it will finally get some use as a headboard in our guest room.

I painted it white and loved it.  Then I distressed it, and loved it.  But I wanted it to have that very old, worn and chipped look, so I put a heavy glaze on it.  I'll show the room when it's finished!  Lots of ivory linen and antique furniture.

Here's  the BEFORE.   You can see some of the damage in the pictures below.

The  moulding is missing on almost all sides. The paint seems to hide it.

Some of the distressing.

Here's another close up of the distressing.

I'm so glad this piece is finally going to be used.

I'll hang it on the wall behind  the bed.  I plan to put it high enough to show as much detail as possible.

Thanks for stopping by.  Don't be mad that I painted it  :)

Kelly